What is the origin and diffusion of the English language?
What is the origin and diffusion of the English language?
Having emerged from the dialects and vocabulary of Germanic peoples—Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—who settled in Britain in the 5th century CE, English today is a constantly changing language that has been influenced by a plethora of different cultures and languages, such as Latin, French, Dutch, and Afrikaans.
What is the origin of English?
English is a West Germanic language that originated from Anglo-Frisian languages brought to Britain in the mid 5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon migrants from what is now northwest Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands.
What is the diffusion of English?
English is changing through the diffusion of new vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation. 2. English words are fusing with other languages. English words have become increasingly integrated into other languages.
How was the English language diffused?
English spread to many parts of the world through the expansion of the British Empire, but did not acquire lingua franca status in the world until the late 20th century, when American culture began to overpower that of others on the global scale.
What is language diffusion?
This change where people give up (partially) use of one language in favor of another is called language shift. To find out why language shift happens and why some languages are being used less and less, one needs to first understand the dynamics behind language shift.
What is the meaning of English language?
1. English language – an Indo-European language belonging to the West Germanic branch; the official language of Britain and the United States and most of the commonwealth countries. English. West Germanic, West Germanic language – a branch of the Germanic languages.
What is your origin mean?
A person’s origin is the country from which the person comes: [ U ] The population is of Indian or Pakistani origin.
What is diffusion and give an example?
diffusion, process resulting from random motion of molecules by which there is a net flow of matter from a region of high concentration to a region of low concentration. A familiar example is the perfume of a flower that quickly permeates the still air of a room.
How has expansion diffusion occurred with English?
How has expansion diffusion occurred w/ English? English has spread through the snowballing effect of an idea rather than through the relocation of people. English is changing through the diffusion of new vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation. English is also fusing w/ other languages.
What is an example of diffusion of a language?
For instance, war and invasion, waves of migration, and the spread of religion dramatically influence the diffusion of a language. In particular, the British Empire was responsible for much of the spread of the English language, while Arabic was impacted by the spread of the Muslim religion.
What is diffusion of language?
Diffusion refers to the spread of a phenomenon over space and its growth through time (Norton, 2009). In this case, the English language is the phenomena being analyzed. This paper will outline the origin of the English language, and will also discuss the contemporary trends of English today but most importantly,…
What is the origin of the English language?
Diffusion of the English Language. The English language is a Germanic language which is categorized in the Indo-European Language Family (See Fig. 1) (Mercier, 2011). Indo-European is the largest language family that contains 430 languages which are all closely related and share a common ancient origin.
Where is English related to other languages?
English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and is therefore related to most other languages spoken in Europe and western Asia from Iceland to India.
Why is English the first choice of foreign language?
English is the first choice of foreign language in most other countries of the world, and it is that status that has given it the position of a global lingua franca. It is estimated that about a third of the world’s population, some two billion persons, now use English.
